Deep Dive: Ayumi Hamasaki Part Twenty-Four (sixxxxxx)

    Hamasaki Ayumi had a big 2015 release-wise. She put out 4 albums! 3 of which included newly recorded material. She proved that Hamasaki as a brand was still unstoppable. After her most personal and most snooze-worthy passionate album, A ONE, Hamasaki gave us a summer mini-album with 6 brand new tracks. Let's deeeeeep dive. 

    Our opening number, "Step by Step" is Hamasaki's best song in years at this point. Upbeat, catchy, breezy, and summery. It brings out the best of Hamasaki, and what makes her the best. Her vocal performance is great. She sounds like she did around 2002-2003 here which is appreciated. This song alone is better than all of A ONE. 

    I think Hamasaki does her best when making upbeat tracks. She has some AMAZING ballads, but her upbeat tracks come so effortlessly to her 90% of the time. "Summer Diary" finds a nice middle ground between upbeat and ballad. It's not boring. It's got some interesting "jungle" backing sounds. Still it's engaging. 

    I mentioned Hamasaki put out a lot of new material in 2015. After re-listening to these first two tracks on this EP, she should have put out a solid 10 track album from all the new material she put out in that year. When it comes to music, quality is always appreciated over quantity. Not that you can't have both, but when you're 17 years into a career like Hamasaki was at this time with yearly release, the creative gas tank has to be running close to empty. 

    I had no idea who SpeXial was prior to this, and I don't know them now. (That's not a diss, by the way). This is a club-ready collaboration though that made me say "good for Ayu." Still dominating those clubs. And a collaboration was just what she needed around this point to add some excitement. It's a good collab. It's like Hamasaki's version of Sandaime J Soul Brother's "R.Y.U.S.E.I." which is that song, by the way. 

    We get a sad ballad with "Sorrows." Proving that A ONE is still alive and with us. The rock on the pre-chorus and chorus makes this superior though. It's like "Last Minute (Summer Version)."

        "Shape of Love" sounds very interesting at the beginning. And the first verse builds into a nice atmospheric chorus. It's almost like you're underwater with this one. It's gentle yet strong, and it's like a current carries you. 

    Our last song "Sky High" ends us on a positive note. And keeps the mini-album consistent all throughout. It's uplifting and thrilling like a summer drive with the windows down on a beautiful day. Kind of like a spiritual successor to "Fly High" from way back on LOVEppears. 

    This EP is some of Hamasaki's strongest material since the first half of Party Queen. It's like she found her footing again through summer. She knows how to serve us up some summer, and she really does it right here on sixxxxxx. I wish she had kept going in this direction. Which her albums did start to be smaller and not as bloated. A ONE could have been a really good album if it had featured these tracks on it though. 

Rank: B Rank. Really a B+. 

Recommendation: We're so close to summer. Give it a spin!
Standouts:

    Step By Step

    Summer Diary

    Sayonara